SEPTEMEBER 9, 1861

Within the primarily Oglala camp, a council was being held. Other bands of the Lakota had camped nearby; the Hunkpapa, Brule, Sans Arc, Blackfeet, Two Kettle, Miniconjou, as well as their relatives from the East, the various bands of Dakotas, and of course, the allies of the Teton Lakota Nation, the Northern Cheyennes and the Northern Arapahos. It was afternoon and both Tonto and the white scout, Jim Bridger, were brought, with their wrists bound, before the chiefs of the Northern Plains Tribes. This was informal, so the meeting was outdoors, as opposed to being held within the tipi of the Cheyenne Medicine Arrow Keeper. The Oglalas would have been obliged to give their Cheyenne allies the courtesy of being the `hosts' had this been formal, since the Cheyennes were their guests. This was within the center of the camp, the tipis forming the Sacred Circle around it.

Besides the chiefs, the villagers, including the women, children and old people, were in attendance to witness the goings on. A young warrior, no more than nineteen or twenty years of age, came forward to Tonto and Bridger and pulled out his knife. However, instead of attacking them, he simply cut their buffalo thong wrist bindings, and then walked off.  Tonto felt that there was something unusual about this young man. When he finished uncutting their binds, rather than joining the other warriors, he stood apart, taking his seat alone, away from the others. Tonto noticed also that behind the young warriors unbound hair, he wore what appeared to be a smooth, ground pebble. It was obviously, a charm possessing `medicine' or power of some sort. Tonto knew that this young man must be special.

Bridger was the first to come forward. "A'ho, kola, Mahpia Luta." The Oglala chief raised his hand. In English, he said, "We may speak in your tongue, Blanked Bridger," the Oglala Chief referring to Bridger's nickname given to him by the Lakota, "so that your friend can understand. He is a white man's 'Indian', is he not? He would not understand his tongue, and we would not understand his." 

Tonto stepped forward, "I understand your meaning, Chief Red Cloud." Tonto obviously did, since that was the English translation of the chief's Lakota name. "I am nobody's 'man.' I am not a servant nor a running dog, my people are the Kiowas, the people from whom yours had stolen the Black Hills from in the time of my grandfather, then conveniently forgotten this so that you may tell your children that the Great Spirit 'gave' you these hills!" There was an angry uproar from the surrounding crowd.

Red Cloud and the others waved them off while shouting for everyone to keep quiet. Red Cloud then said, "Ordinarily, your hair would be hanging from my coup stick after such an insult to our people. But you are a brave man, an 'Indian' as the wasichus call us, and soon the time will come when we will need as many brave 'Indians' alive as possible if we are to survive them. Be lucky that I need information from you and Blanket Bridger. Be silent until we speak to you . . . Kiowa."

Tonto knew that he had won Red Cloud's respect and he wisely, knew not to push the matter further. He backed away, but still kept his head high while facing the chiefs, standing as straight as possible to make himself appear taller than he usually was. Red Cloud then addressed Bridger. "Why do you ride against us, Blanket? Though white, we had always known your heart to be of our people until now." 

"The whites your warriors ride against have done you now harm." 

"The Indians at the soldier fort have done yours no harm! And yet, they are missing, the trails leading to the forts. Your people are no longer content to take our land at the Platte River country. They are no longer content with roads. Now they wish to make slaves of us, like they do with the people they have stolen from across the big water!"

"The trails are false!" Said Bridger. "The enemies of your people are at the trader's post." 

Red Cloud answered, "They give us guns! Would an enemy dare arm us, knowing that we would rise up if we knew they had taken our brothers? And I do not believe that a white man, any white man, could set trails that would fool our finest trackers." Bridger did not answer. He didn't know how to answer that, since he knew that Red Cloud was right. How could whites possibly mislead Indians with false trails in their own country? 

Tonto thought about that, too. He could not restrain himself. "No white man could, unless he had other 'Indians' helping him." Again, there was uproar from the crowd. The chiefs looked to each other, taking in the importance of what Tonto was implying.

*****

Jedidiah was part of a working team that was working outside of the mines, bringing the ore-carts out to be processed. Link was with him and the sergeant and his men were outside, watching over everyone. Link noticed that Jedidiah kept looking towards the guarded iron box. While continuing to work and load the ore, Link edged closer to Jedidiah and said, "You keep lookin' at that box and the sarge and his boys will make an 'example' of you, too."

Jedidiah got the message after looking at the sergeant. To Jedidiah, the sergeant appeared to have the look of an angry bulldog, just waiting for an excuse to pounce. He continued working, taking his eyes off of the iron box. He also edged closer to Link, working with him, helping with the loading. He said, "How the hell am I supposed to keep my cool? My friend and another one is in there! They'll die if we don't get 'em out." 

Link responded, "And if you get killed, they'll never get out. I got two others who want in on the plan?" 

"Can you trust them?" Jedidiah asked in a hysterical, suspicious tone.

Annoyed, Link answered, "Of course I can trust them! You think I'm gonna be careless with my own life? I'm not stupid, you know!" They both realized that their shouted whispers were growing louder and that the other workers were starting to notice. They both calmed down. Link continued, "Of course we can trust 'em. Two brothers, there used to be three of 'em."

"They lost one of their own in the mines?" 

"Sixteen year old kid. Caught when one of the tunnels caved in 'cause of the rottin’ wood supports gave way. That there sergeant had the two of 'em beat when they stopped working to try to dig out their brother." 

"Little son of a bitch! Before we get outta here, I wanna ring his fat neck!" 

"First we get your friends out, then we can worry about that later." 

"Yeah." Jedidiah had noticed that there were many Indian workers here. "A lot of Indians, here." 

"Don't count on them helpin'," said Link. 

"They're like Chinese, they keep to themselves." 

"Good fighters, though, if we could work with 'em. They're bein' here is probably the reason for all the Indian troubles in the first place." 

"Forget that notion. They don't trust nobody and maybe they got a reason. But right now, we got to go with what we can depend on." Link then paused to gather his thoughts and catch his breath. He then continued. "Our two guys are in the mines right now, but they're going to be assigned to clean up duty tonight."  

"Who assigned them the double duty?" 

"Guess." 

"Our friend, the sergeant." 

"Loveable guy." Link continued, "They'll be observing the guard's routine. Then tomorrow night, we can strike." 

Jedidiah's frustration was obvious. "Tomorrow night might be too late for my friend and his companion!" 

"Got not other choice. Let's just hope they can hang on for one more night." Link then left Jedidiah to go back to work elsewhere so as not to attract too much attention to themselves.

Jedidiah said to himself with sarcasm, "Hope." Left alone to his work, Jedidiah noticed that one of the Indian workers had dropped something as he was doing his loading chores. Sim was nearby. He stopped what he was doing, picked up the object and tried to give it back to the Indian. Walking after the Indian, he said, "Hey!  Hey, you! You dropped something!"

The sergeant intercepted him. "What the hell are you doing? Give me that!" The sergeant took it away. He then shoved Sim to the ground. "Git back ta work, ya little sonafabitch!  'For I tan yer mangy hid and feed it ta the vultures!" Sim, on his butt on the ground, backed away frightened, then got up and quickly went back to work. The sergeant looked over the object. Jedidiah recognized it as some kind of beadwork, probably religious in nature, as Justin and Samantha had told him some things about their mother's beliefs.  Jedidiah saw that the sergeant looked around, and then put the object into his pocket.

In the Oglala camp, another important Teton leader, Pawnee Killer, said in response to Tonto's implication, "If it is another red man working with the whites, it is one of our enemies, the Pawnees or the Crows. They lick the white man's boots so that they no longer have to hunt to feed their families. They are the same type that helped guide the Squaw Killer, Harney, to Little Thunder's camp on the Blue Water, and murder our people more than five winter counts ago."

Tonto then spoke, Red Cloud's warning to keep quiet having been forgotten by the momentum of Tonto's implication, "All the Nations remember that attack. But there were Sioux among the guides-." 

Pawnee Killer said, "Traitors, 'hang around the forts.'"  

Tonto then continued, "Still your relatives, the ones who are missing, the ones who you fight for."

Another leader interjected, "What are you getting at, Kiowa?" 

"I'm saying look to the possibility of the trader's post. There are those among your people, if not here, then among the 'hang around the forts' who would stand to gain by betraying their own and by framing the soldiers at Laramie. After all, the blue-coats at Laramie haven't always dealt fairly with the red man." 

The young warrior who sat by himself added, "No they haven't. They killed the chief of my village, a man who they themselves had appointed as 'chief of all the Sioux' as if such a thing were possible. The reason was over a stray cow that wandered into our village." 

Bridger added, "We have all remember the death of Conquering Bear, Tashunka Witko."  Bridger addressed the young man by his Lakota name. Tonto continued, "If an ambitious red man wanted to gain power, would it not be to his advantage to be the savior of his people? He'd encourage a war with a hated enemy, then supply you with the means to carry it out!" The chiefs and the crowd took in what he said, causing a loud uproar.

Red Cloud spoke over the commotion, his voice quieting them down. "We have many chiefs and we all trade at the post!"

Tonto added, "Then one of the traders, he's the Sioux who has betrayed your people." 

Again, the crowd became loud. Another leader, a Hunkpapa holy man, renowned for his visions & his battle record against the Crows, spoke up. "Listen to
him brothers. There is the possibility of truth in what the Kiowa says." 

Red Cloud spoke to this other leader, addressing him by his Lakota name. "Tatanka Yotanka, you believe these lies. He is a Kiowa! An ally to the Crow, our hated enemies!  Of course, he would try to spread suspicion amongst us!" 

Tatanka Yotanka, the Sitting Bull, simply said, "I'm not saying that it's true what he says. 

I merely say that it might be true." Sitting Bull then stood up to address everyone. "Brothers of the Teton Nation, as well as those of the Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho, as you know, I have visited our cousins, the Santee of Minnesotta, 'The People of The Farther End.' They have also been betrayed by traders who say they owe when they do not owe and by their own brothers who work for the traders. Their chief, Ta Oyate Duta, 'His Red Nation', who the whites call 'Little Crow' in remembrance of his father, has told me that war seems on the horizon, a war they cannot win, but a war that they must fight.  I say we must listen to this man. And think on what he has said. True, his people were enemies of ours at one time. But the time is coming when ALL the Red Nations must stand together. I'm sure our Cheyenne brothers understand this. They're cousins in the South are allies with the Kiowas and the Comanches and the Prairie Apache."  Sitting Bull then looked to Tonto, and with a smile he said, "Anyway, he may be Kiowa but at least he is not a Shoshone!" 

Tonto knew that that was as close as he would ever get to a compliment from a Sioux.  He smirked at that remark. Sitting Bull then finished. "That is all I have to say. Washte."  With a wave of his hand, Sitting Bull sat down. There was silence as the respected holy man's words were taken in.